


i could grasp forever (if it meant it was with you).

by viscassia



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Nobody is Dead, One Shot, soft clexa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 09:18:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6900169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viscassia/pseuds/viscassia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Should I take on a last name?” a thick silence descends on the room before Lexa explains. “It seems like a good idea to implement the custom in Polis, maybe. I was thinking if I should start it.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I think it could work. But what would it be?”</p>
<p>Lexa pauses like the thought hadn’t occurred to her. After a moment of contemplation, the girl speaks again. “Can I take on yours?”</p>
<p>//</p>
<p>the one where lexa has no idea what a last name is and isn't at all aware that to take on another person's last name, you'd either have to be related -- or married.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i could grasp forever (if it meant it was with you).

**Author's Note:**

> first fic! with the finale coming up, & the threat of the descent of pure pain & suffering, have a little soft clexa.  
>  **minor edit:** replaced all of the ampersands with 'and' because it was distracting for some readers.

** i could grasp forever. **

 

 "Clarke.” The girl looks up to find the commander, standing in her room – although she had no idea how she had gotten there in the first place. “Why do your people have last names?”

"Oh, well,“ Clarke blinks, trying to find the words she can use to explain but nothing comes to mind quick enough. She’d accepted them as a way of life at this point, and she’s never actually questioned it. She looks up, catching Lexa’s emerald eyes that are shimmering with curiosity. “Why?”

_"Skaikru_ introduces themselves with them, yet your people insist on only keeping to one.” The lilt in Lexa’s voice makes it sound like it’s the most puzzling habit on earth. “What is the other name used for?”

"I – well, I’m not really sure, but usually it’s to keep track of family name or if two people have the same name, you’ve got the next one to distinguish them both so...” Clarke trails off. “You also use it when you get married. Like, usually the wife gets the husband’s last name to show they’re both a family now.”

Lexa’s head raises, interest seemingly piqued. The commander takes a seat in front of Clarke. Ever since _Skaikru_ had been accepted as the 13 th Clan in the coalition, the lines that separated their people had blurred and while the segregation still showed itself in skirmishes and cliques, neither clan expected full peace and unity in this generation. _Trikru_ healers and farmers spent more time both teaching and learning with Clarke’s people. _Skaikru_ representatives had been taken to Polis to experience the culture and dynamics of the other. Ever since the Ice Nation fell and swore full loyalty to _Heda_ , the earth had experienced the most semblance of peace it had felt in a hundred years.

Clarke saw Lexa more a d more often as she’d accompany her people on most of their trips to _Skaikru_ territory. And as much as the commander tried to stay detached, Clarke could see her interest and amazement at their technology and customs. As of the moment, she was here with the scholars of Polis who were on a mission to learn more about space. None of the Grounders had ever seen the sky as more than a spiritual depth in which their ancestors watched over. Clarke wonders whether that was what Lexa saw in them too.

“Clarke?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry, what were you saying?” the commander’s soft voice wakes Clarke from her contemplation. She glances up to find the other girl staring at her with emerald eyes shining a little too bright.

“What’s your last name?”

“Oh, well, it’s – uh, it’s Griffin.” Clarke doesn’t know why she’s so flustered about this. She feels like she’s drowning under the commander’s gaze and the waves of genuine interest that paints her voice when she asks.

“Griffin?” Lexa tastes the word on her tongue, clicking out the ‘g’. “Clarke Griffin."

She feels goosebumps crawling down her arms and  _god, when did it get this bad?_ “Yes.”

**//**

 

“Clarke?”

Clarke hears Lexa’s voice before she sees her, coming into her room stripped of armor and war-paint. She still feels her stomach roll when she sees the commander like this. She seems almost her age, if not for the heaviness in her deep eyes; eyes that had seen too much but showed too little. The same ones Clarke catches herself falling in when the commander takes her usual seat in the metal-walled room. “Lexa.”

The commander holds her gaze, straightening up in the chair and clearing her throat. Clarke mentally prepares herself for the words that are to fall out of her lips. “Should I take on a last name?”

It takes her by surprise. “I – what?”

Clarke is almost proud of the red that brushes the other girl’s cheeks.

“Should I – Should I take on a last name?” a thick silence descends on the room before Lexa explains. “It seems like a good idea to implement the custom in Polis, maybe. I was thinking if I should start it.”

Surnames for the Grounders didn’t seem like a bad idea. With the peace treaty at its peak, and the little military demand, families were keeping together as units more than ever. Clarke learns that _Gustus_ is apparently a common name on earth and that it was getting to be an issue in roll calls or attendance checks.

“Yeah, I think it could work. But what would it be?”

Lexa pauses like the thought hadn’t occurred to her. After a moment of contemplation, the girl speaks again. “Can I take on yours?”

Clarke nearly falls off her stool. “You know, unrelated people don’t usually do that on the Ark unless they’re getting married. Unless,” she finds herself grinning, her cheeks heating up and tensing with the unfamiliar action. “That’s your way of asking.”

“Oh, uh, _no_.” Lexa flushes, biting her lip. “I, uh, apologize, no.”

“Oh, c’mon, I’m not that bad.” Clarke teases despite the pang of disappointment she feels. _Disappointment?_ “Your loss, I would’ve said yes.”

“You – you would have?”

She refuses to acknowledge her pulse racing when she hears the hope (?) webbed in the other girl’s words. _Would she_ have said yes? A few make-out sessions and some (really good) sex was enough to get her to say _yes_?

“Maybe,” she says, her throat dry.

“You barely know me, Clarke.”

Clarke stands, and the commander does too. Her chest tightens when the words roll off her tongue like they have wanted to forever. “Then let me know you.” She watches herself take a step forward. “You’re always so walled up.” Another. “But I want to know you, Lexa. I want to.” She’s standing right in front of the commander now, inches away like she’s done so many times before. It feels familiar. It feels like fiery gazes, entwined fingers and soft lips. It feels like Polis, & the promise of _maybe_ & _‘Not everyone. Not you._ ’

Lexa’s eyes flutter down to Clarke’s lips.  “You already do.”

And, _oh_ , Clarke almost forgot the way Lexa’s lips felt against hers. They hadn’t had time to talk about _them_ in the hastiness of war and alliances but now, in this time of peace, Clarke felt a little fire in her chest that maybe, just maybe, they could work. Maybe soon, they could owe no more to their people and she would be just-Clarke, and the commander would be just-Lexa and they could fall in love. And they could be together. And they –

“Clarke,” Lexa rasps out & she realizes that they’ve fallen into the cot in her room, and her hands are on the commander’s waist like they belong there. She closes the space between them again and feels her stomach clenching in the hope of a _happily ever after._

 

**//**

“Clarke.”

Lexa’s voice is but a whisper in the dark now, yet she hears it. How could she not? The commander’s lips are pressed to her ear and she shudders when they lay a soft kiss on it. Her body aches in the best possible way and she feels a lazy smile drift on her face when she rolls over to meet glittering emerald.

“Lexa.”

“You never answered the question.”

Clarke blinks, tracing her fingers down the other girl’s bare shoulder. “What question?”

“Can I take on your last name?”

She feels another grin emerging, and how could she not say yes when Lexa is looking at her like she fashioned the stars in the sky? “Lexa Griffin?” The name feels funny on her tongue but it fills her with warmth and light and maybe she didn’t make the stars but she sure as hell could pass as one right now. Lexa’s lips pull up in a gentle smile and she wants to paint them and sketch them and kiss them so that that smile lasts forever.

"Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> i'd love it if you guys left comments/suggestions. thanks so much!


End file.
